President Donald Trump's White House is known to be a petty place and now it's being called out again after assistant Margo Martin and shared a video of a hallway filled with the portraits of former U.S. presidents—and paused on former President Biden's new "portrait" of an autopen signature.
Martin announced that "The Presidential Walk of Fame has arrived on the West Wing Colonnade," and the video she shared pans over multiple portraits of former presidents before lingering on an image of Biden's autopen signature.
You can see her post and the portrait below.
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It was a petty jab at Biden inspired by a conspiracy theory Trump himself promoted shortly after taking office.
In the final hours of his presidency, Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons, including ones for his relatives, all members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack—such as former Congresswoman Liz Cheney—and several of Trump’s most prominent adversaries, including General Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Trump alleged without evidence that Biden’s pardons were signed using an autopen, citing a report that claimed the Biden White House frequently relied on the mechanical device. The report, published by the Oversight Project, a branch of the Heritage Foundation, has been used by commentators to fuel claims about Biden’s cognitive decline.
The autopen, a machine designed to replicate signatures, which Trump himself has admitted to using, has long been used by public figures, including U.S. presidents, for signing notes and letters. According to The Autopen Company, which manufactures the devices, it is "the oldest, most commonly used signing machine" and has been in operation for "more than 60 years."
The pettiness of this did not escape anyone.
Over the summer, Biden called Trump "a liar," stressing that not only is the autopen "legal" but that "other presidents used it, including Trump."
Biden told the New York Times that Republicans have "lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing" and that "the best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else."
Trump—who could teach master classes in the art of projection—has also been called out for hypocrisy considering his own pardons for insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the day a mob of his supporters stormed the building on the false premise the 2020 election had been stolen.
The mass pardons meant rioters imprisoned for their involvement in the attack were released, and judges began dismissing dozens of pending cases following Trump’s inauguration, after which he granted a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus individuals charged in the insurrection.
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